An Antidote for Avarice (Chronicles of Isaac of Girona, #3) by Caroline Roe

An Antidote for Avarice (Chronicles of Isaac of Girona, #3) Reviews

• 
  Dina

  I really like this series and would give this book a 4.5 if I could. As others have written, it is obvious that the author, Caroline Roe, has done a great deal of research on life in the mid-14th century of what later becomes the eastern part of Spain. While this tells less of the Jewish community, it continues to tell of the relationship between the blink Jewish doctor Isaac and the local Catholic bishop. This book especially talks about the political intrigues in the political and religious leaders in the area.
  
  I am sorry that my library only has a few copies of this series but glad that I can get them used on Amazon. The pace is slow but steady and character development continues throughout the series. This book seems a bit choppier than the first two but it may be more of how I read it than the book itself (on the airplane).
• 
  C. (Never PM. Comment, or e-mail if private!)

  "An Antidote For Avarice" is a difficult premise to describe, not solely because it is third in a unique 1300s series. Our protagonist, endeared medical doctor Isaac, is sharp enough to solve Girona crimes; whilst we acquaint his family. Their Jewish community is gated in this catholic Spanish city. The Bishop is a good-hearted family friend. Since becoming blind, Isaac depends on his daughter, Raquel to assist him and she is the protagonist this time. It is a road trip, with moving parts and a regular change of settings and paces, which is the second reason this story is tricky to explain. I nonetheless liked this novel far less.
  
  I nearly called the first reason personal but reoccurring with such awful repetition, rendered me unable to enjoyed the remainder of the novel. Let's say you have the true memory of a mystery buff; details don't escape you. Next, say there was a term, or habit that drove you bonkers; like if people say "dinner", in place of LUNCH! You would certainly cringe, if a term you loathed kept popping up. Caroline Roe and her editor needed to do better: by varying the wording and to stop discussing meals so often. You find no page in which that blasted, preposterous term isn't regurgitated.
  
  Other weaknesses are that victim and culprit have nothing to do with Isaac's milieu. Not even insofar as discovering the victim! They merely help someone he swindled. There is complete remoteness of emotion and involvement and the resolution is incidental. That is never good, if the answer is just eventually picked-up. Mysteries need to matter to protagonists and should be solved by the power of their talents. The road trip was creative, in which Judith sees her family. Raquel's private challenge furnished the best, brightest part once again.
• 
  Okenwillow

  Antidote à l’avarice est le 3ème volume des Chroniques d’Isaac de Gérone. C’est avec plaisir que j’ai retrouvé le médecin aveugle du XIVème siècle, sa famille et son entourage. Caroline Roe sait nous plonger dans cette époque et nous intéresser à ses personnages. L’intrigue démarre très lentement, on suit les événements en se demandant à quel moment l’histoire va commencer pour de bon, on profite du contexte historique et culturel, elle prend son temps pour poser le décor, et surtout pour démêler les ficelles de l’intrigue. La résolution complète de l’histoire n’intervient évidemment qu’à la toute fin du livre, pour mon plus grand plaisir.
• 
  Emmy Kuipers

  Perhaps it's because I jumped onto the bandwagon with book three or perhaps it is because I read the book in Dutch (the library had no English copy) but this medieval mystery did not really entertain me. It had none of the detail of character of a Cadfael and it had none of the determined digging of Sister Fidelma. In fact, the mystery lingered on while no one was actively investigating.
  
  The blind Isaac of Girona could have done with a bit more love and characterisation. The historical backdrop didn't grasp my imagination, despite its setting in southern Spain.
  
  Memorable character:
  Rachel. She seemed the only one who actively tried to get some enjoyment in her life.
• 
  Diana Sandberg

  I had kind of decided that this series was only so-so, not great, not terrible. But I quite liked this one. I liked the depiction of the enormous effort it took to get a bunch of people from one town to another several days away, the kind of dangers and difficulties such an enterprise presented. The mystery wasn't bad, either. And I always did rather like the regular characters; the romantic part of the story seemed quite realistic.
• 
  Dawn

  This is better than the last book but still not near as good as the first.
  The majority of the story takes place on the road to Tarragona. All the extra characters added into this 300 pages book made it seem like everything was over before I'd really gotten to know anyone or even really figure out what was going on.
• 
  Lisa

  Another fine entry in a good series. The portrayal of medieval life and medicine is especially interesting.
• 
  Roshni

  Isaac solves a mystery on the way to Tarragona. Fast-paced and complicated mystery
• 
  Susan in NC

  3.5 stars - this was an interesting road trip for Isaac, the blind Jewish physician and his friend and most important patient, His Excellency the Bishop Berenguer of Girona. I didn't rate it higher because I found myself at several points confused, not only by the multiple characters and their titles, but by the rather vague and confusing mystery, floating somewhere around the periphery of the trip to Tarragona...
  
  What I know for certain is that Isaac and Berenguer are still an interesting, entertaining pair of lead characters; I hesitate to call them sleuths because the mystery, as I said, seemed to be incidental and tacked on. As the novel opens, Berenguer is leaving Girona for a Bishop's Council; he wants Isaac to accompany him, but Isaac's strong-willed wife Judith wants to go as well. Her sister Dinah lives at Tarragona and the two mothers are plotting marriage arrangements for Isaac and Judith's daughter Raquel, who is also Isaac's assistant. The traveling retinue grows, and the mechanics of getting such a large group from one place to another in medieval Spain, as another reviewer points out here, was a fascinating subject in itself! Just after the group heads out of town, a murdered priest is discovered bearing documents with a papal seal; the bloodied documents, still sealed, are sent on by messenger after Berenguer. Then the traveling group comes upon a badly beaten young man, and attacked by brigands; are the murdered priest, the beaten young man, and the attack connected?
  
  This is where it gets confusing for me; the action on the road is interspersed with scenes at the royal court, the archbishop's court, even the ecclesiastical courts. I wasn't always sure who the characters were in these scenes, because of the secular and religious Spanish titles, and I wasn't sure how they were connected to our traveling group, the murder, the attacks, etc.
  
  So, I enjoyed the usual recurring cast of characters and enjoyed seeing them in a different setting, but could've used a cast list and some background on the political situation of the day; as in the first two books, author Roe does outstanding research and creates interesting scenes, but the main strength for me are the great characters. Raquel, in particular, is coming into her own and growing up - I look forward to the next book to see where her character goes.
  
  I would recommend this series to fans of historical mysteries, my favorite genre, because it is well-written and well-researched, and offers strong characters in a fascinating setting and time I knew little about. I just need to read more closely to figure out what the political and clerical intrigues are about!